I just got some Dahlquists myself and absolutely cherish
them for the price I paid! I bet you'll love yours as
well.

I run mine with a Marantz SR6300---a good warm receiver,
which is just what these speakers need. Your H/K 525
should be just about perfect for the Dahlquists.

Marc at AudioShop.on.ca sells both the Axioms and the
Dahlquists and has said that people regularly choose the
Dahlquists over the Axioms in blind A/B tests.

Also, I feel you'll get more bang for your buck with the
Dahlquists than most speakers on the market... you'd be
hard-pressed to beat their value. Just do a search on this
forum for a tonne of great rave reviews on them.

Also, my vote goes towards this package:

QX9 Fronts
QX20R Surrounds
QX50C Center
~1050

...BUT, I'd try to get the QX60C center for the best timbre
matching in the front -- it should only be $50 - $100 more.

I think I would look more into the rf3 II's than the rf15's. They are an older model but also a more expensive speaker offered at more of a discount because of their new line. I own a set of them still and am very impressed. They are the only klipsch speakers I kept when I decided to go to a "move up". I can tell you these are excellent in bass, clarity, and overall output. A whole lot of sound comes out of these "little" towers.

Ok, I just looked into the qx9's and I would have to say the rf3's will trounce them just judging by specs. The rf3s have dual 8" woofers vs qx9's 6" and the rf3's use a very efficient horn tweeter to achieve high volume and great clarity. Sensitivity on teh qx9's is 93db vs the rf3's 102db. And finally the qx9's weigh in at 35lbs vs the rf3's at 56lbs. Their cabinets are close in size with the klipsch rf3 slightly larger so most of the weight difference would be from the magnets(which is a good thing). One bit of advice, don't skimp on your mains if you got the cash to do it. I know their is a decent difference in price but I guarantee you'll be happier in the long run with a much better purchase.

I use s38's all around, and I was thinking of upgrading, so I went and auditioned a fair amount of really high end speakers and came to the conclusion that the s38's are way darn good, even up against speakers costing 4 times as much.

I've got the QX10's, QX60C, QX6's, and a QX4 with my M&K sub and it rocks, or sings, or whatever else you want it to.

I trusted Marc at his word over a year and a half ago and haven't needed to look back! Since then, I've heard M&K, Klipsch, Macintosh, Polk, Infinity, Energy, and NHT in some very nice soundrooms. With the exception of NHTs ($2,500 for the pair, mind you), the Dahls have been far more pleasing on both music and ht. My brother-in-law from Seattle also heard them all over two separate occasions (using Jesse Cook, B-Tribe, E. S. Posthumous, and other demanding tracks) while visiting SLC and here in Idaho--he was just as impressed. In fairness, the Energys were right there with the Dahls in HT...

Klipsch are nice, especially if you want big spl--but their horn tweeters are fatiguing to many after a while. They are a fine speaker, though; they just didn't produce the nearly 3-D effect that the Dahls can (and I'm talking about 2 channel stereo). In fact, until I did some hard comparisons with the other speakers mentioned above, I didn't fully appreciate the Dahl's separation and soundstage. Marc had mentioned people talking about the 3-D effect but I hadn't noticed it really--I just though they sounded great. Now I realize how special that "great" sound is!

I have two brothers with Klipsch 5.1 HTs and they both admit that the Dahls are more revealing and detailed. Again, in fairness, the Dahls don't put out as much SPL per watt due to the unreal sensitivity per watt of the Klipschs. However, the Dahls will put your hair back if you want them too (AC/DC and Boston never sounded so good!).

Anyway, for the prices, the Dahls have got to be very hard to equal, and especially hard to beat.